"the sun has got his hat on..."

You know that expression- Make hay while the sun shines.....

Well in this house it is- Paint fabric while the sun shines!!!!
Making the most of the unseasonably warm March weather!
Hope you have all had such a fabulous sunshine filled weekend.

The Prayer Flag Project

I have been a contributor to The Prayer Flag Project since October last year. This week I posted a couple of Creative Courage flags, which I want to share with you here.

I began with some pieces of  hand dyed fabric and cut them to size. These are 16 x 5 inches.

These will be folded over to make a pocket from which to hang them. I like to make mine double so that the back covers up any unsightly stitching. 

Next I decorate the fabric with stencilling and stamping.

I added some birds and stitched in my theme.

The Prayer Flag Project is open to any one. It is about sending out wishes, giving thanks, commemorating a  friend, a loved one, or an event. It is about giving support to those near and far.

see the running stitch along the top to join the two sides

It is also about celebrating ones creativity in a positive way. The flags can be a simple or as elaborate

as you would care to make them.

Why not join in?

There are more details on the blog or you can email me your photos for inclusion.

You can also find more of my prayer flags here.

Wishing you all some Creative Courage this weekend!

Seaside Home

Seaside Home, a photo by C&T Publishing on Flickr.

Carrying on from yesterday's Seaside theme (it wasn't planned) I have just discovered that this book is now available.
It seems like an age since I was contacted by C&T publishing to submit my Pebble Stack design for inclusion.
Well, it is now available, and today there is a giveaway going on over on the Stash Books blog ...where you can see a piciture of my design...with my name......on a C&T publishing blog...I am so thrilled!
Stay tuned because I will be having a giveaway here soon!

Scenes from a Seaside Home

In an earlier post I said I would share some info on fabric paper. Here it is at it's most basic.

A copy of a photo, and some white fabric.

 Some PVA glue mixed with a minimum of water, and a plastic tray.

Cover the fabric in glue.

Lay the paper on top and also cover in glue.

Now there are a few points to remember. The ink will run (this is a print from an ink jet printer), but you can keep it to a minimum by not too much water in your glue and not over brushing. You will have a few wrinkles and a bit of blurring but I am happy with that.

A simple fast way to get an image onto a piece.

This is what I did with mine.

I put it onto some wadding, added a few strips, and then added stitch.

Now I have a great "random zig zag" stitch on my sewing machine that I like to edge things with sometimes. Like me, you probably end up with something like this when you zig zag an edge.

After trimming this is what I do.

I add a touch of paint (or sometimes glue or acrylic gel medium) all along the edge, to neaten everything up.

It works a treat!

If you want to learn more about the delights of fabric paper I can highly recommend this book.

Stitch Alchemy by Kelli Perkins is like a comic for grown ups, and I mean that in the best sense. It is so full of colour, it is a real feast for the eyes and packed with ideas for making and using fabric paper. I love browsing through my copy.

fabric friday

Moody. Just like the weather here today!
Have a good weekend!

Dreaming of Borneo

I first showed you this piece back in October here. I also discussed how I made the stamps here.

It is long overdue but I have finally got around to finishing it. I am not going to lie to you, I was looking to finish quickly as I had long lost any inspiration regarding the piece, but as I mentioned before it is a piece I use to demonstrate stamping, and as some people seem to turn up at more than one group, I felt I needed to get it off the UFO list.

With that frame of mind I decided to print off some scanned images and put them onto fabric and just slap them on. I was doing a test print in paper first to check the alignment, when I decided to just skip printing it onto fabric and make some fabric paper instead. As you can see I stitched the images down with monofilament thread and I was done. 

It won't be hanging in any art galleries or on a wall in my home for that matter, but for a sample it does just fine.

Stay tuned for info on fabric paper in case you don't know what I am talking about (and if you can't wait visit Leslies blog, she uses it a lot). Plus I also want to share with you the method I used for the edging on this piece.

fabric friday (kind of...)

Ever since I began painting fabric I have been saving the selvedges.

Sometimes they are painted in situ and then removed. Sometimes they are removed before painting and then I keep them to mop up any bits of paint that have are left over. (I know, I need to get a life!)

I have already made a diary cover with them, but you only ever need one of those, and I did attempt making a pencil case, but zips are really not my thing and I don't want to have to repeat that experience too often!

I can maybe see a string quilt in my future but before I commit to that I am looking for suggestions. Any ideas?